Rain and Books
by RubyDust
Summary: Maybe rain and books really are good for something, even though Murphy's Law tries to make you believe otherwise in the beginning


**Title: **Rain and Books  
**Fandom:** Digimon  
**Rating:** T  
**Pairing:** Matt/Tai  
**Summary:** Maybe rain and books really are good for something, even though Murphy's Law tries to make you believe otherwise in the beginning**  
**

All I wanted to do that day was just curl up on my big, soft, comfy bed and read, since the evil rain was pouring outside. But of course that was out of the question. Oh no, I wasn't allowed to read quietly by myself. I had to have the most annoying presence in the whole world around all day, just to bug me. But I guess, in the end, the day didn't turn out quite so bad….Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself here. I should really start at the beginning….

School was finally over and it was the beginning of our summer holidays, so of course it was raining. I mean how Murphy's Law is that! We've been worked to the bone by the cruel slave drivers they have the nerve to call teachers, and we finally get our well deserved time of rest, but instead of staying at the same sweltering heat it's been every school day, Mother Earth decides to pull some cruel joke on us and just let the rain pour down!

So that being said, I of course had nothing to do, unless going shopping with Mimi and -shudders- Sora counts as something to do. And hell was going to freeze over before I would ever even THINK about going out in public with just the two of them. Of course, Sora would SOMEHOW think up some way to make it just me and her, and then I would end up in worse then hell. Sure, Mimi's pretty cool, when she's not going on about fashion and all that, but Sora by herself….Surely SOMEONE would have been kind enough to tell her that I have absolutely no interest in her, whatsoever, but no. And so here I am left to suffer.

But anyway, I am not here to complain about the evil redhead, I'm here to complain about how my perfectly planned day was ruined by a certain spiky-haired demon!!! And no, I'm not talking about Davis here, though I swear he's been having personal lessons exactly how to be the most annoying person ever with the spiky-haired demon himself.

So yes, I was awoken early in the morning (way too early for my liking) by the yell goodbye and a slam of the apartment door, courtesy of my dear, dear little brother. Apparently, from what I gathered from his cruel yell, he was spending the day with his precious girlfriend. Kari of course. I slowly started to remember him telling me something about it the night before, but that was when I was turning over to try and gather what ungodly hour it now was.

7:30!!! By this time I was thinking this was all some cruel practical joke on me. All of my friends knew it was extremely dangerous to wake me any earlier then 9:00, most of all little TK, but then again, he was also the one who was cruellest to him when it came to mornings. Ok then, maybe second cruellest. Knowing I was never going to get back to sleep after that, I lay in bed for a few minutes longer, and it was then when I finally realised the faint sound of the rain outside.

Groaning, I manage to pull myself out of bed and stalk out into the extremely quiet, not to mention extremely empty, apartment. Stretching my arms out and letting out a yawn I lazily made my way into the kitchen to make myself a hot cup of caffeine goodness. Grabbing a mug out of the cupboard I noticed a message left on the answering machine. After listening to it I found it was from dad, telling us his week-long conference, god knows where, had been extended for a few more days, so instead of arriving home some time this afternoon, he would be coming home later in the week. Snorting at the message I dumped my mug on the bench, switched on the jug and looked around for the coffee.

Three hours later, my cup of goodness long gone, and I was extremely bored on the couch, channel surfing. Though really, I had actually given up even looking at the TV a long time before and was just glearing outside at the pouring rain. In those few hours I managed to have a shower, make myself breakfast, contact TK about what he was doing that night (staying at Kari's of course), get the call from Mimi and Sora, explain to them in great detail exactly why I was too 'busy' to go shopping with them (well explain to Sora, Mimi actually knew everything about me in some scary way….), make my bed and put on my washing for some strange reason, and still watch too much TV.

Very soon after this I finally came to my senses and turned the TV off, threw the remote on the chair beside me and lean my head back trying to figure out what to do next. With my head falling back over the couch I instantly spotted the best thing all I had so far seen that day. Quickly jumping over the couch now, I walked over to our 'library', and let my eyes skim over the many book covers that made up our great collection.

Quickly choosing one of my favourite fantasies, by the genius of Christopher Paolini (Authoress's Note: -squeals- I love him and his books!!!), I wandered back to my room, my nose already deep into the story. Falling onto my bed, lying on my side, I just read. You probably wouldn't take me for a reader, or TK for that matter, but that's defiantly one aspect the two of us get strongly from our Father. Most of our friends were, surprised to say the least, but none more then Tai.

To him, his hobbies are either soccer, soccer or soccer. Or video games. So imagine his surprise the first time he found me reading, something other then the cartoons in the paper that is. Oh man, now that was a scene. He didn't believe it at first, thought some alien had taken over my body and all that. It was actually rather amusing. But yeah, he gave up on the alien conspiracy theory long ago, now it's the possessed by ghosts theory.

So anyway, back to my day. For the next, who knows how long, I was just lying in my room, on my comfy bed, listening to the rain outside, and reading happily by myself. I almost knew it was too good to be true, and I was right. Like I said, I have no idea how that peace had lasted, but it defiantly wasn't enough when I suddenly heard this loud bang of the front door flying open, followed by the evil yell of

"MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATT!!! YOU HOME?!?!"

Of course he knew I was home. The girls were of course shopping, Joe had gone on a holiday over to Italy, Izzy had gone somewhere to visit his grandparents or something, Davis had gone camping with some other friends and I'm pretty sure today was the day that Cody and his girlfriend were double dating with Ken and Yolei, off doing couple stuff. Of course TK was at Tai's place with his little sister, so he would've heard directly from my little brat brother about our Father's conference thing, knowing I would be home. And alone for that matter.

So into my room comes the spiky-haired demon himself, along with a few stay-over essentials, and out goes my peace and quiet.

Wait for it. He walked in, stopped once he saw me, and just stared. It was all I could do at the time to stop myself from bursting out in laughter. I just glared coldly at him holding up my book.

"I was reading."

"Whoa. The ghost is back!"

Somehow he managed to fling his stuff all over my room while grabbing an old baseball bat and holding it above his head fiercely.

"Where is it?! I'll get it this time!"

I just sighed and looked back down at my book.

"I hope you closed the door on the way in…."

"…….."

Absolute silence. Every time it never fails. He never remembers to ever close the front door whenever he comes over. And trust me, he always comes over. All I could hear for a moment was his soft shuffling of his feet, and the small 'click' of the door, as he walked to the it, shut it, and walked back into my room. I was lucky this time. There was almost a 30 second gap between the time he walked back into my room until the inevitable:

"Maaaaaaaaaatt. I'm bored."

I sighed, as always and looked up at him, properly, for the first time.

"And what am I supposed to do about it? You're old enough, or you should be now. Entertain yourself. If you're still not old enough, you're just a threat to humanity now." Then I went back to my book

Silence. Absolute silence. It was about now that I was starting to fear for my life when I felt this lump jump beside me and lay next to me, also on his stomach. I glanced over to him, then frowned looking down at myself, and even now can't remember when I managed to move onto my stomach. I fully turned my head to look at him with my eyebrow raised. The expression on his face could pass off as the most innocent look ever, so, of course, with years of being friends with him, I grew immune to that look a week after we meet, and completely ignored him going back to my book. Plus, I'm known as a cold-hearted bastard by many. Most likely that particular rumour was started by the spiky-haired demon himself, along with most others.

"Tai…"

"Yes Matty Matty Matt Matt?"

My eye twitched at that damn name.

"Stop looking at me like that or soon you won't be able to look at anything anymore."

Ahhh. That sound of silence was so sweet in that moment, along with the absolute stillness of the 'thing' next to me. But sadly, Murphy was not playing nicely with me that particular day.

"Maaaaaaaaaatt……"

I closed my eyes counting to ten, just to stop myself from turning to him and throttling him right there and then.

"….Whatcha reading?"

Suddenly my eyes were opened and I looked over to him blinking in an extremely (according to him) dopey and surprised yet oh-so-confused look.

"What did you just say Tai?"

He of course just rolled his eyes at me and answered like it was the most natural thing in the world, "I just asked about what you were reading. It's not against the law now is it?"

And I of course eyed him over suspiciously.

"And why would you want to know that now Tai?"

"Well, Matt, being such the good friend that I am, I was merely inquiring about my good friend's interests."

"………….Ok. Who are you and what have you done with Tai?"

"Matt!"

"Oh good, Tai, you're back. I don't know if you know this, but just then your body was taken over by some other presence whom actually asked me about my book instead of just-"

"MATT!"

I couldn't help it. By this time I was laughing…well chuckling to myself, but sure. And you can be sure Tai wasn't too pleased by my reaction, but for some weird reason, completely unsure why at the time, I felt a small twinge when he just said 'friend'….

"Matt that's not funny! I was just trying to be supportive of your hobby but no! I'm not allowed."

"Oh Tai, come on. It's not like that and you know it. I mean think about it. Since when have you ever taken an interest in my interest of reading."  
Now it was here when I could start to detect that something was defiantly up. He, instead of going on the attack and answering back smartly, just turned away from me, hiding his face from my sight and sort-of shrugged.

"Oh, you know…"

"No I don't know Tai. Care to indulge me?"

"Oh….no….no. I'm good….yeah….."

"….Oh really…."

"Oh yeap. I'm good. Really."

He finally plucked up the courage to look back at me grinning his usual damn cheesy grin that has always annoyed me for some strange reason.

"Very well…."

And so I gave him one last suspicious look before just looking back down at my book and continuing reading.

"Sooo…Matt…I, uh, didn't catch the name of the book…."

I looked back over to him, just as suspicious as before but just let it go.

"Brisingr, by Christopher Paolini."

"Oh! The Inheritance Trilogy! I can't wait for the next book!"

I still remember my exact thought about this little outburst, and it happened to go like 'What. The. Hell.'

"You….read these books Tai? Wait. You read? What happened to the ghost?"

The look on Tai's face at that moment was priceless. It was like a mix of dumbfoundedness with a dash of shock, surprise and defiantly something sheepish. And in all that was also a hint of such a cuteness. Yeah, I said it, cuteness. Of course, at the time, with that thought, I was freaking out, but….I'll get onto that later.

"Well, you see, I guess, the cover looked so cool, with the dragon, so then I found the first one with the blue dragon, and you had always said, so I kinda decided to give it a go, and dragons are cool, and the covers just drew me in, and so yeah, I read it….and liked it."

I just lay there and stared. Even now I have no idea how long I was staring at him, but as each second passed Tai was defiantly becoming more and more uncomfortable. Firstly, his eyes slightly started to dart around the room, but always coming back to my face, then he started to twiddle his thumbs nervously, and then came the fidgeting. Oh man, he looked so jumpy and nervous I couldn't not laugh at him.

"Hey! Now that's just mean Matt. Don't you laugh at me."

Which of course set me off more.

"Maaaaaaaaaatt!"

Ah, He had resorted to the use of the whine. I just shook my head at him, my laughter slowly dying away, and in the end just went back to my book. I could hear him 'humph' beside me but took no real notice.

As I slowly turned another page I was acutely aware of his absolute stillness and silence, so of course, being his good friend, I started to get worried. All the possibilities of what his evil, trickster mind could be planning made me glance over to him as inconspicuous as possible…which, for me, wasn't very inconspicuous. He, in turn, was staring straight back at me, except this was a look I had never seen before. From the looks of it he was in a complete daydream, but very quickly snapped out of it when he finally noticed me looking back. It was in that instant, where both our gazes met, that I knew something had changed between us, something completely new and different had been created…and I had no idea what that was.

As suddenly as we had met each other's gaze, we both turned our heads back away, me to my book and Tai to the floor. For a moment we were both utterly still and silent. Heck, I barely even dared to breath, and from what I could gather, so did Tai. After what seemed an age, I silently dared myself to slowly glance back over to him for a split second. But of course, after years of being friends our similarities had become scarily close, and so he managed to time perfectly to look back at the exact same moment as me. Needless to say, the exact same thing happened as before and I could swear I almost heard my neck crack at the speed.

So yeah, at this time, you could say I was freaking out. I had no idea what was going on, and it wasn't really that I could ask Tai as well, so I did what any other brave, sensible and responsible person would do in my situation – I completely ignored everything around me and went back to reading my book.

But in the end things slowly started going back to normal (and when I say slowly I mean excruciatingly slow). I knew this because Tai started fidgeting again. (To tell the truth, at the time I was rather thankful for his fidgets, but never again!) I was actually beginning to relax again, and completely loose myself in the book, but that plan went entirely out the window as I felt Tai move the slightest inch closer. My whole body froze up and I was so sure that everyone a mile away could hear my heart pounding like crazy. So fearful of how Tai would respond to my reaction, I was moments away from leaping off the bed and just running away as fast as my legs could carry me. But instead I managed to pluck up my courage (a miracle, I know) and look over to him and find out what he was doing.

Here and now, I am extremely glad that I didn't go through with the whole running away plan for I quickly figured out what Tai was actually doing. There he was, lying alongside me, with this calm, peaceful and happy expression on his face as he was slightly leaning closer and reading my book.

Whoa. Maybe he really was telling the truth about the whole reading thing… My shock of course completely destroyed all my motor skills and all I could do was lie there and stare at him. His brown eyes were darting across the page, hungrily reading each word to himself. I watched, as the only movements he made were to see the book in a better light. He reached the bottom of the second page and bit his lip lightly, before slowly lifting his head to look up at me expectantly. I blinked at him, as if coming out of a deep daydream and raised my eyebrow at him.

"Can…can I turn the page?" His voice came out in barely a whisper, so timid and shy. I tilted my head, staring at him, and could only nod a yes. His mouth split into a grin as he dove back into the book, quickly flipping the page and reading on. To say the least, I was in complete and utter shock, but instead of going ballistic with threatening him to stop messing with me, I just let it pass. Something inside me just told me to just let this path run its course, so I did.

Incredibly enough, time pretty much flew by after that 'small' shock, and before I knew it I heard Tai's stomach growl in hunger. And I only call before a small shock, because what happened next was definitely a much bigger shock. I guess the growl snapped me out of my reading daze, and so I lazily glanced over to my alarm clock, my eyes nearly popping out of my skull when I saw the time. 1:06! Where the hell had all the time gone. I nudged Tai with my shoulder, getting only a nonsensical 'Eh' in response.

"Oi, it's past one. Maybe we should get some lunch or something. I know you're hungry, I heard your stomach complaining just before."

Now, this right here is where the huge shock came. His reply, "But, but dragon…" Said without once taking his eyes off the page.

I almost fell off the bed I was so stunned. This was TAI. Tai never, and I mean NEVER, turns down an opportunity for food. Especially when he's hungry.

"Are you sure you're feeling ok Tai? This is food we're talking about…"

Ok, I probably did deserve the kick, but hey, I was in shock.

"Well how about at the end of the chapter? Because I am getting hungry myself, now that I know the time."

"Yeah ok, I can go with that. I mean, you're right, it's food…"

And he totally deserved the revenge kick I aimed his way.

Something that I found out that day was that even though he was an avid reader, well at least when it came to these books, he still couldn't keep up that easily with my speed. I did try and slow my pace for him, but sometimes it just got a hold of me and I couldn't help but read ahead, especially now that I was hungry. So, of course, as I reach the end of the page, I automatically turn it, not thinking about the spiky haired brunette next to me until I heard this strange indignant noise coming from said boy as he protested my actions.

"Hey! I wasn't done yet. Turn it back Matt."

I, still holding a grudge from my peace being ruined earlier, pull a half assed face at him and reply with the oh so brilliant, "Make me."

Scowling at me he elbowed me once before giving up and then just face planting the book itself. Through this move though, he had managed to trap both my hands underneath him, so I decided to use my head in manoeuvring my way out of the situation – and head-butt him. Of course, being a day where everything seemed to be going perfect for me (note the sarcasm), this plan was perfectly executed. I for one had no possible way of seeing the end result of this innocent act turn out as it did, but in hindsight…I'll just get on with it.

So down came my head, just as his head turned around to face mine, and before I knew it, my lips crashed down onto his. As frightening as that fact itself was, the fright factor completely magnified after the initial stares of shock into each others eyes wore off and both of us automatically grabbed for each other as our mouths danced together in the battle for dominance. Hands roamed everywhere, up sides, under shirts, across skin, through hair, around waists, while our legs entangled together, our bodies rolling as one across the bed, the long forgotten book falling to the floor with a soft 'thud'. As for our mouths, oh wow his lips were so soft and heavenly, I could barely breath, but when I felt his tongue teasingly lick along my hungry lips, god that boy made my whole body melt to his touch. I soon heard a low moan, and if possible my whole body lit up an even brighter red than what the hormonal heat had already done to me, as I realised the moan came from my very own throat. I could literally feel that spiky-haired demon grin as he dove his tongue deep into my mouth, not that I could do much about it in my current state. All I managed to do was massage his tongue with my own and moan even louder pulling him down from where he straddled me (I still have no idea how he managed to do that), tighter against my aching body.

But of course, as much as my hormonal teenage mind was absolutely loving this, my sensible side sparked up, curious as to what would happen next. And so, with that thought, I just stopped. I stopped digging my fingers into his silky soft skin, I stopped moaning in absolute pleasure, I stopped playing battle with his perfectly controlling tongue, and I stopped insistently pressing my mouth against his own heavenly soft lips. I just stopped. My body went slack, my eyes flew open, and my mind was screaming abuse at me for ruining my relationship with my best friend.

Having just had a very heavy (very VERY heavy) make-out session with said best friend did have its advantages though. He knew me better than anyone else in the entire world, and instantly pulled back with an extremely concerned expression gracing his perfect features.

"Matt? Are you ok? You don't look ok. Did I do something wrong?"

"What, oh god no Tai. No, don't blame yourself. Trust me, you were…perfect."

"But something's wrong Matt, and don't try to tell me there isn't because I know there is! I know you Matt…"

"And I know you too Tai…and…you're right."

I saw his Adam's apple literally bobbing as he swallowed, terrified as to what I would say next.

"As incredible, and amazing, and unbelievable, and wonderful, and mind-blowing, and mind-boggling, and breathtaking, and fantastic, and-"

"Yes Matt! I get the picture! You enjoyed it! But what's wrong?" He had completely pulled back at this point, his face a portrait of hurt confusion as he sat back on his knees, arms wrapped tight against his chest as if to protect himself from my words I guessed. I sighed then, and pushed myself up, leaning back on my arms for support as I looked him straight in the eye, but before I could even open my mouth to speak, he started rambling off.

"Oh god, it was me wasn't it. I knew I shouldn't of done it like this. I should've just kept my mouth to myself and gone on like I have been, like there's nothing wrong, because there is nothing wrong, and we're all good aye Matt? Yeah, nothing's weird. I don't know what I've been thinking these last six months. Come on! You're my best friend, aye Matt? Course you are. I've just not been thinking straight these last six months haven't I. Yeah, that sounds right. I mean, convincing myself I was in /love/ with you. Pssh. What-MPHM!"

Well I had to shut him up somehow, and the most obvious way at that point was with my mouth. Hey, I'm a teenager. So sue me.

"MATT! What the hell was that all-"

"Oh no you don't! Don't start rambling again! Just tell me the truth. Have you seriously been in love with me for the last six months?"

"What?! No, no! Course I haven't!...I mean, sure, that's what it felt like, I guess, but come on, /me/ in love with /you/, you're kidding, right…"

His chocolate eyes widened at me innocently, though whether he was trying to convince me or himself, I wasn't sure, so I just gave him a 'oh yes, I /really/ believe what you're saying' look. After a moment more of holding his hope, Tai just sighed, and his whole body instantly drooped. He stared down at his fidgeting fingers then extremely hesitantly lifted his eyes to meet mine, he slowly pressed his lips to mine in an innocent kiss before pulling back, nodding his head and sighing once more.

"Yeah, it's true. I really do believe that I…I…" His gaze lifted an inch to meet mine once more. "I love you Matt."

Ok, sure, in hindsight laughing probably WASN'T the best thing to do, but I couldn't help it! I swear! So as his beautiful eyes misted up with tears, and his body tensed ready to leap away at a moments notice, I quickly darted forward and kissed him passionately, wrapping his body into my secure embrace.

"You idiot. Don't run away. I think I love you too."

"…Oh. Right. My bad…Wait, so then why'd you stop? I mean, if you really mean it…"

I softly kissed his forehead and squeezed him tightly against me.

"I mean it Tai, really and truly. It's just, with what happened before, it seemed too impulsive and random, maybe even something we'd regret later, and I'd never want to regret anything with you. You mean far too much to me Tai, as a friend, and…something more…I didn't want us to have a moment, then things turn all weird between us afterwards. I want what we do to have a meaning. I want…I want to be with you Tai…"

And from the look he gave me then, I was so terrified I had gone just that wee bit far, enough to make him realise he'd been making a huge mistake and wasn't actually in love with me and was, in fact, ….and then he just kissed me again, totally shutting down my mental freak out, before giving me a smile far too cute to be legal.

"I know that look, and I know you just a had a total mental freak out."

"Well…maybe just a little…"

He laughed softly and pressed his heavenly lips against mine again in a chaste kiss, expressing so much love and emotion I thought I was going to crumble and die right there.

"Well stop it, because clearly there's nothing to freak out about. I love you Matt, and know for a fact you love me too, so you better just buck up and get used to it."

I thought about it for a split second, before grinning at him and slowly pressing his back down onto the bed, swapping our previous positions with every intent and purpose to carry on where we left off just before I had my minor freak out freezing moment. The gasps he let out, and the way his eyes were fluttering on just between open and closed just egged me on even further as I lay small butterfly kisses along his jaw line and down his neck.

"Oh I think I can do that Tai, I think I can do that very easily…"

* * *

So after Tai arriving at my apartment, some uncomfortable moments catching each others eyes, pleasantly reading together, our declarations of love for each other, two EXTREMELY hot make out sessions, and some lunch, I found myself lying back on my bed, Brisingr once again open in front of me, a comfortable silence filling the air, and the gorgeous body of my new boyfriend pressing warmly against my side as he lay reading as well. Yes, as crappily as my day started out, it really didn't end all that badly…

"HEY! I've told you once, and I'll tell you again! Stop turning the pages so fast! I'm not as quick as you Matty-Matty-Matt-Matt."

And once again I found a head face planting it's into my book, but before I could react, I also found an arm snake it's way around my neck, pulling me down so our lips met in a sweet kiss. The blush that appeared instantly on my face, along with a moody scowl, went completely ignored by the younger brunette currently giggling up at me. Ah well, to tell the truth, I really couldn't be happier. It seems that rain and books are good for something.


End file.
